


Where My Ho's At?

by Milieu



Category: Bandom, Black Veil Brides
Genre: Airports, Alternate Universe, First Meetings, Fluff and Humor, Holidays, M/M, Ugly Holiday Sweaters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-01
Updated: 2015-12-01
Packaged: 2018-05-04 06:05:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5323346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milieu/pseuds/Milieu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Getting snowed-in at the airport isn't how anyone wants to spend their Christmas Eve, but Ashley just might manage to find some holiday cheer in a cute stranger (with some assistance from tacky Christmas sweaters).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where My Ho's At?

**Author's Note:**

> Happy very early holidays!

Ashley hated airports. Forfeiting his dignity to total strangers was only fun if he was doing it on his own terms, the chairs were uncomfortable, and something  _always_ went wrong when he had a layover. His general mood at times like these could be summed up as a great big mental middle finger to whatever higher powers were having a laugh at his expense when he got stranded in the ass-end of some airport in the middle of Ohio because Ohio was a blemish on the face of the Earth and Mother Nature was trying to remedy that by dumping a million-billion tons of snow on it.

Getting told that his connection to LAX had been canceled because of the weather and that the next available flight was at seven the next morning had put a bit of damper on the trip back from New York, was the point here. Also people kept giving him weird looks because he was still wearing the bright red sweater that had a picture of Santa and "WHERE MY HO'S AT?" in bold block letters across the front. It had been a hit at the ugly sweater party he'd gone to last night (he'd still managed to get laid, which had to count for something), and he'd decided to just say "fuck it" and wear the thing on the trip home; it was pretty comfortable, and what did Ashley care if some strangers he was never going to see again judged his fashion sense? This plan had not taken into account the possibility of being stuck with said strangers for upwards of twelve hours.

He'd refused the hotel voucher on the grounds that if the weather was bad enough to bring everyone's flights to a halt, it was bad enough that he didn't want to sit in the back of a cab as it attempted to make its way to the hotel. Traffic delays both ways meant that he would have been rushing in the morning to get back to the airport before the new flight boarded, and he didn't need that at six in the morning. Ashley's ass was staying firmly in this fucking vinyl (Pleather? What the hell were they made out of?) chair until the next morning, and all the strangers who were put off by his sweater could just deal with it.

Unfortunately, once Ashley had called his family to explain the situation and had his fill of complaining about his predicament on social media, he was met with his second obstacle of the night: boredom. Fiddling with games on his phone only occupied him for so long, and he didn't want to run his battery down and have to get up in search of an outlet. Maybe he could pick up one of those cheap crime thrillers in the airport bookstore, but he wasn't sure he was really bored enough yet to start spending money. He settled for slumping down in his seat and half-paying attention to whatever reality show was playing on the TV screen next to his gate, biting back an irritated sigh. Stuck in a nearly-deserted airport, surrounded by sad, wilting tinsel and cheap ribbons, and nothing to take his mind off of it. What a fucking fantastic way to spend Christmas Eve.

At least he wasn't the only one bored out of his mind, going by the way the guy sitting next to him was starting to nod off. They were the only two people left at this gate, save for the late night employees, but he'd taken up residence in the seat right next to Ashley. Maybe he was one of those people who just felt like they always needed to be near someone else to be comfortable. Ashley didn't mind.

Or he didn't mind up until the guy dozed off fully and his head lolled onto Ashley's shoulder, anyway. It wasn't even a light doze either, he was out cold and his face was practically pressed into Ashley's neck. But okay, he could handle this. No big deal. Sleepyhead (as Ashley decided to call him) was kind of cute, even if the wool beanie he was wearing had gotten lopsided and was making Ashley's cheek itch. Shoving him off would be rude. Blah blah, Christmas Eve, be good to your fellow human beings, blah blah.

Ashley didn't even realize that he was nodding off too until some noise from the TV made him jerk awake again. Sleepyhead mumbled at being jostled but didn't wake up. Ashley grimaced at the pins and needles in the arm that Sleepyhead was laying on and reached over to carefully ease him off. He slid out of his chair and pulled his duffel bag up onto the seat as a makeshift pillow for the other man before straightening up and stretching, groaning as the feeling returned to his arm and his back popped. He needed coffee; staying up all night would suck, especially the next day, but he wasn't about to risk his stuff getting stolen because he fell asleep in public. He made a beeline for the Starbucks a few gates down, silently thankful for the 24-hour policy of most of the airport restaurants.

Nobody else was in line, naturally, so he made his way right up to the counter. The lone barista looked perkier than anyone working at a deserted airport at eleven p.m. ought to as she chirped, "Hi, welcome to Starbucks!" at him. Ashley just returned her smile, albeit with much less pep.

"Could I get a venti peppermint frappuccino?" 

"Coming right up!" Ashley nodded in response and slid down to the end of the counter to wait on his drink. He tapped a random beat on the countertop with his fingertips, trying to keep himself alert. The lingering tiredness from his flight from New York and the party the night before was catching up to him, and his eyelids were getting heavy just standing here. He needed that caffeine, badly. 

The tiredness had taken hold so well that it took Ashley a minute to process things when the barista set two drinks in front of him. "Um...?"

She smiled brightly again. "That one's a hot chocolate. For your friend." She nodded in the direction of his seat, where Sleepyhead was still curled up and cuddling Ashley's duffel bag. She must have seen them sitting next to each other and, well... sleeping on each other, and assumed they were traveling together. "It's on the house. Consider it a holiday treat."

"Oh." Well, it would be a shame to waste the drink since she'd already made it and all. "Thanks, then." He took the drinks and returned to his seat, shooting a smile back in response to the "Happy holidays!" that was thrown his way as he left. The barista hadn't even said anything judgmental about his sweater, which was nice. He didn't have the mental faculties right now to deal with any smart comments about it.

He carefully shifted Sleepyhead upright and to the side, sitting down and setting the hot chocolate in the cup holder at the end of the row of seats. The first sip of coffee that he got through the straw was a delightful burst of peppermint and chocolate, and Ashley's mood immediately lifted. Happiness, thy name is the Starbucks winter menu. He didn't even care that Sleepyhead had slid down in his seat again and was now more or less laying across his lap. Poor guy must be exhausted if he was sleeping this soundly in an uncomfortable airport chair. Still cute too, possibly moreso now that Ashley was a little more awake and could better appreciate it.

Ashley sat like that for a while, sipping his coffee and half-paying attention to the TV until Sleepyhead began to stir. He stretched in that way that people did when they were half-awake and trying to progress to fully awake, and one of his long arms smacked Ashley right in the face.

Sleepyhead quickly sat up, nearly knocking their heads together and giving Ashley an apologetic, embarrassed look. "Oh man, I am so sorry. Was I laying on you?"

Ashley's nose ached a bit as he rubbed it, but he was unable to completely suppress a grin. Sleepyhead's beanie had gotten even more askew, and the locks of dark hair escaping from underneath it were sticking out in odd directions. Ashley had to say, he looked pretty good slightly disheveled. "Yeah, but don't worry about it."

"Are you sure? I mean, I hit you..."

"I've been hit harder by people who actually meant it," Ashley assured him. Remembering something, he picked up the hot chocolate and offered it. "You want this? The girl at Starbucks thought we were together and made an extra."

"Oh. Sure, I guess." He took the cup, still looking embarrassed. "...I'm Andy, by the way."

"Ashley." He held out his hand and Andy shook it. His eyes flicked down to Ashley's sweater and he studied it for just a second before he burst out laughing.

Ashley raised his eyebrows. "I know it's a good sweater, but it's not that funny, man."

"No, no, look-" Andy set the hot chocolate down and fumbled with the zipper on his jacket. Ashley considered saying something along the lines of "whoa, we just met here" before Andy managed to undo the zipper and Ashley realized why: on bright green knit to match Ashley's red was a portrait of Santa and the words "WHERE MY HO'S AT?" in block font.

"Oh my god." Before he'd even fully processed it, he was laughing too.

"Ugly sweater party?"

"Of course. You?"

"Same, but I was also just wearing it around the house to annoy my parents earlier." Andy zipped his jacket back up and picked the hot chocolate up again to take a sip.

Ashley did the mental math and frowned. "You're leaving your family on Christmas Eve?"

"We sort of had a fight."

"Oh," Ashley said, realizing that he'd probably just pried into something private. "Sorry."

Andy shrugged. "It's fine. I live in LA right now actually, but I was visiting for the holidays. But see, my whole family except for me is Catholic..." He trailed off and made a vague hand gesture that more or less equated to "you can see where this is going".

Ashley nodded. "Gotcha."

"What about you?"

"Going home to see my family, actually. I was visiting some friends up in New York last week."

"Oh, cool." Andy perked up. "What's New York like? I've never been."

"Real fucking cold this time of year," Ashley said plainly, getting another grin out of Andy. "It's nice, though. There's so much to do there, you'll never get bored."

"Sounds nice. Do you travel a lot?"

"Sort of. I like going places, but the actual 'traveling' part of it..." Ashley gestured at the empty airport around them. "Not so much. What about you?"

"Not as much as I want to." Andy adjusted his beanie, pulling it down more firmly over his hair. "Money's kind of an issue, since I don't really have a steady job right now. My parents helped pay for me to come visit, and I'm pretty much using up my emergency savings to go back early."

"What do you do? Or want to do, anyway?"

The way Andy's face lit up told Ashley that he'd just asked the magic question. "I sing. A little bit of acting too, but mostly singing. I'm trying to get a band together." Before Ashley could say anything else, Andy launched into a long summary of his singing career up to that point, his favorite musicians, and his current attempts to cobble a group together.

"What about you? Do you sing, or play anything?" Andy seemed almost out of breath after all the information he'd just unloaded onto Ashley. His excited energy was pretty adorable.

"Yeah, I sing a bit and play bass and guitar. I've tried a few times to get a group together, but nothing's really worked out yet."

"We should work together." Ashley almost laughed until he took in the serious look on Andy's face. "I mean, it can't hurt, right?"

"We just met," Ashley pointed out.

"Yeah, but think about it! We live in the same city, and we're trying to do the same thing, and you're cool, and we... we have sweater chemistry!" Andy opened his jacket again to reinforce his point, and Ashley did laugh that time.

"I dunno if the sweaters should be part of our act."

"Oh come on," Andy grinned. "We can call ourselves Santa's Hos."

Ashley snorted. "Definitely not."

"Is that a no to working together, or just to the name?"

"Hm..." Ashley pretended to mull it over, amused by the way Andy practically bounced up and down in his chair with anticipation. Really, he'd already made up his mind; he wasn't about to say no to the possibility of seeing Andy regularly. "I guess we can give it a shot."

"Yes!" Andy's smile was nearly blinding. "It'll be great. When we're rich and famous, this will be the story we tell of how Santa's Hos was formed."

"We're not calling ourselves that."

"I'll get you to come around to it," Andy teased. "I have a lot of charm at my disposal."

"Oh, really?" Ashley was suddenly aware of how close they were sitting, and how they'd gradually leaned into each other over the course of their conversation. Andy didn't seem to have much tact in the way of personal space, but Ashley couldn't say that he disliked it.

"Definitely. I'll make sure you warm up to it."

"Maybe you should just warm me up instead," Ashley blurted, because who was he to waste an encounter with a cute, friendly guy like Andy (especially when they had sweater chemistry)?

Andy was not at all put off by Ashley's bad flirting, if the way he was practically back in his lap the next moment was anything to go by. Maybe making out with your potential future bandmate in the middle of an airport was a bad idea, but hell, it felt fantastic.

"Merry Christmas," Andy mumbled against his lips when they briefly pulled apart. Ashley slid his fingers up under Andy's beanie to take hold of his hair and kissed him again.

"Merry Christmas, Andy."

Six hours to go until their flight. Ashley could deal with that. He definitely wasn't bored any longer.


End file.
